


Here Goes Nothing

by reeby10



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, Alternate Universe - Online Dating, Coffee Shops, Community: interhouse_fest, F/M, First Meetings, Journalist Hermione Granger, mentions of online dating harassment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 15:07:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8895952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reeby10/pseuds/reeby10
Summary: Hermione joins MagicalEncounters.com to prove the popular dating website is a wasteland of predatory behaviour for an article she's writing. When she meets someone named "Hoggy-007," she's shocked to discover how much she's drawn to him and how much they have in common.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted [here](http://interhouse-fest.livejournal.com/129100.html) for Interhouse Fest 2016.

Hermione grimaced as she clicked the sign up button at the top corner of her screen. She wasn’t particularly looking forward to any of this, but she had an article to write. Her exposé on the predatory behavior rampant on MagicalEncounters.com was sure to get some good attention–and some bad, so was the world of journalism–but she knew the research was going to be pretty cringe-worthy.

Honestly, she was already kind of wishing for a different subject, even if she’d been the one to push for this one in the first place.

The sign up button took her to a page where she was prompted to fill out her personal information. She already had all the fake profile information picked out, written neatly in the journal where she was keeping notes for this article, so it only took a few minutes to complete. Soon she was officially a member. She only cringed a little at the welcome email.

She spent the next few hours clicking around on the website, getting a feel for it. The messages started coming within minutes of her signing up. Most of them were rather bland, just a “hi” or a “wanna chat?” There were a few that went straight for the uncomfortably sexual, which was exactly what she’d been expecting. It didn’t make it any _easier_ to read what some stranger thought of her breasts, but at least she’d been prepared for it.

None of the messages were really worth responding to, too banal to be worth it even for her article. Well, she’d just have to hope they became a little more creative soon. She was on a deadline after all.

A week later, she’d gotten some good messages. Well, good in that they were perfect for her article, not good as in she was glad to get them. Because reading them was really not a highlight of her day. She was strongly considering taking up drinking after this was over just so she could forget some of the things she’d been forced to read.

Though there had been one message that had really piqued her interest. It was a stand out among the rest, a short but politely worded message from someone called “Hoggy-007” that didn’t include anything about her breasts or his sexual prowess. And, almost as good, it was without a single spelling or punctuation error. That in itself was practically a miracle in her experience so far.

She’d messaged a few others back just to see what would happen, but this was the first one that she was tempted to reply to for herself. She supposed she had nothing to lose whether he responded or not, or even if he turned out to be one of the creeps MagicalEncounters was so known for.

“Here goes nothing,” she muttered to herself, and hit send on a reply.

By that evening, there was no return response from Hoggy-007, and Hermione tried to pretend she wasn’t a bit disappointed by that. It was just… she didn’t have a whole lot of things to look forward to in life at the moment. She and Ron had amicably split up months ago–which was fine, they were better off just as friends–and she hadn’t had a single date since. She was feeling a little lonely was all.

She went about making her dinner for one, curled up on the couch with the tv turned low while she ate. Her tablet lay on the cushion beside her, email open so she could check it during the commercials, as well as her work journal. She might still be doing research for this article, but that didn’t mean the rest of her work could fall by the wayside.

During one of the commercial breaks, she noticed a new email from MagicalEncounters. Assuming it was just another creepy guy wanting pictures of her breasts, she almost ignored it to deal with in the morning. It only took a moment before she realized she recognized the username. Hoggy-007 had finally messaged her back.

There were a few more important emails waiting for her attention, but she decided that for once she’d be selfish. Though really, she had to remind herself that this wasn’t for _her_. It was for research.

This was just work.

She read the message with growing delight. He apologized for taking so long to respond and hoped she’d consider continuing a conversation with him. His words were dry, but there was some humor lurking at the edges that had the corners of her mouth lifting with amusement. He’d already proved himself to be very different from the other men on the website, and this just went on to enforce that.

They spent the rest of the evening exchanging messages. His wry humor and sarcasm kept a smile on her face as they discussed books they liked and tv shows they watched, his intelligence clear in his words. It was almost ridiculously easy to talk to him, and it turned out that they had far more in common than even their profiles would have indicated.

Talking to Hoggy-007, whose real name she still didn’t know, quickly became a part of her daily life. They messaged each other whenever they were free from work, usually at lunch and in the evenings. Sometimes she even woke up to a message after they’d said their goodbyes the night before. The messages were a bright part of her day, especially as she began more fervently digging into her research in order to wrap up her article.

She tried to feel bad about being so invested in this growing relationship–because she knew that’s what it was–when she was writing about the cesspool of perversion and predatory behavior MagicalEncounters was, but it was hard when it just felt so nice. It had been a long time since she’d had such deep and interesting conversations, since she’d felt like someone was as invested in her as she was in them. They’d been talking for barely a week, but it really felt like so much longer than that. She felt like she’d known him for ages.

It was easy to see that she was falling for him without ever meeting him or seeing his face. She knew so much about him from their talks, what he liked to read and how he felt about his job and even some about his family. But the only pictures he had up cast his face in shadow, making it impossible to see much more than vague features. He had dark skin, that much she knew, but she wanted to know the color of his eyes, the shape of his lips, the feel of his skin.

Not knowing was killing her, and she wondered almost daily if he felt the same about her.

A few days later she got her answer, at least in part. At the end of a message, he casually mentioned meeting up at a coffee shop downtown. It was hard to tell exactly what he meant by the suggestion–whether he wanted a hook up or to get to know her better or something else–but just reading it had her heart beating overtime with excitement and nervousness. He wanted to meet her!

Hermione responded in the affirmative immediately, hoping he wasn’t put off by the enthusiasm of her words. Well, if he was, then they weren’t meant to be anyway. She wouldn’t be looked down on for her passion, even by someone she enjoyed talking to as much as him.

They made plans for the weekend, and the intervening days were some of the hardest to get through. She was used to the anticipation of having an article published, of having a big story break, but this was something different. This was more personal and infinitely more important. She couldn’t bear the thought of anything going wrong and the wait to see what would happen was pure agony.

The morning of the meetup was a mess of almost frantic preparation. She changed outfits three times, finally changing back into the first outfit she’d tried. Her hair was a lost cause, which she’d known for most of her life, so she just tried to tame it down a bit. This was her big chance to make an impression on him outside of their messages. She had to look her absolute best.

By the time she was ready to go, she realized she was running late. That was not the good impression she’d hoped to make, so she hailed a cab as soon as she hit the street outside her apartment. The cost would be worth it to not have to deal with the subway while she was so nervous and in such a hurry.

She made it to the coffee shop just in time, stepping through the doorway and looking around as her heart threatened to beat out of her chest. He’d told her what he would be wearing, which was the only way she could recognize him. He had to be there somewhere…

She caught sight of him on the far side of the coffee shop, seated at a two-person table beside a window. He was dark skinned with smooth, almost regal features, and he was wearing a dark green sweater that looked so soft she wanted to stroke it. All in all, he looked absolutely perfect.

There was already a coffee on the table in front of him, so she ordered quickly before making her way over to his table. He looked up as she approached, and it was obvious he recognized her from her profile picture. He smiled at her, just a peek of brilliant white teeth between his lips that had her stomach doing pleasant flip flops.

“Are you Hoggy-007?” she asked a little breathlessly, wanting to be sure. There were still so many things that could go wrong, but for some reason she didn’t think they would. She had a good feeling about this, about him.

“Yes, please call me Blaise,” he said. His voice was deep and rich, so much better than she’d imagined from their messages. “It’s so nice to finally meet you in person. Please, sit down.”

“You as well,” she replied, giving her best smile as she sat across from him. Here goes nothing indeed. “I’m Hermione.”

**Author's Note:**

> Concrit welcome. If you like my fic, feel free to come hit me up [on tumblr](http://voldiebuns.tumblr.com/)!


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